Computer systems, including personal computers, are obviously well known. Conventional computer systems include basics such as input devices (keyboard, mouse, trackball, stylus, touchscreen, and the like), storage devices (hard drive, disc drive, CD-ROM drive, and the like), one or more processors (CPU, dedicated microprocessor, and the like), a display (cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), or the like), and other miscellaneous elements, both general and specific (memory, bus, video/graphics card, modem, and the like). In general, computers are capable of storing information or data from various input devices. However, the information collected by a computer from different input devices is typically unrelated and stored separately, other than audio and video data that may be simultaneously collected and stored together as a single audio-visual file.
One known system that is different from most computers is a computer system that includes a “smart pen” such as LIVESCRIBE™. The smart pen includes an infrared camera that captures everything that is written/drawn on a page of paper using the smart pen and a microphone that captures audio. The infrared camera and the microphone capture such visual and audio data while the smart pen is in a “record” mode, thereby associating the audio data with the video data captured at the same time. Once recording is stopped, audio that was recorded when a writing/audio writing/drawing was created may be played back by the smart pen by touching the paper at that writing/drawing with the smart pen.
The smart pen is capable of storing the recorded audio and visual data locally. Also, the smart pen is configured to transfer the data to a computer, such as a laptop or desktop computer, via a universal serial bus (USB) connection. The computer may stored the visual data as page images with the associated audio linked to the particular writings/drawings. Once transferred, the data may be searched for keywords. The keywords may be identified in the stored page images, for example, by highlighting. Selecting a highlighted keyword may cause the associated audio data to be played back.